Welcome to the 27th annual Harlem Film Institute Film Festival. This year we have six films, starting with “A street renaming: Black Panther Party Way”. The film takes a look at a street in Harlem, renamed in dedication to the Black Panther Party, Our second film, “The Million Youth March”, takes a look at the million youth rally, lead by the late Dr. Khalid Muhammad. The film premiered at the first film festival.
The next film, “African Burial Ground Memorial” follows the ceremony and dedication to the burial site of Africans in lower Manhattan. The site includes the World Trade Center area, as well as the center street Courthouses. “Merci’s Journey” chronicles the life of my daughter, Dr.Merci Best, from a toddler to grad school, she is now a neuroscience researcher in Boston,
Anasia: the art of Anasia Mapp”, showcases the exquisite art of Anasia Mapp. The sixth and final film “Mr. Jason Andrew”, tells the haunting story of a life of former Harlem Film Institute student Jason Andrew.
The Harlem Film Institute is honored to induct Hailie Gerima into our Hall of Fame..
Director Turns To AI For Stereotypical Roles Black Actors Won’t Take
Director Paul Schrader sparked a debate after using AI in a film to portray three Black men as a corrupt cop, drug dealer and sexual deviant.
Hollywood has come a long way in its depiction of Black culture, going from an era where we couldn’t even be hired to portray our own race to becoming award-winning actors and actresses in our own right.
Unfortunately, we still deal with controversy when it comes to stereotypical roles reserved specifically for Black people. Although many thespians of color have shown autonomy in what acting jobs they choose to take or deny, the recent developments in artificial intelligence are threatening to add yet another hurdle to clear.
Famed director Paul Schrader proved that with his decision to use A.I. as a replacement for actors in his upcoming film, Three Guns At Dawn. His reason? No Black actors wanted to play the lead roles, which include a corrupt cop, a drug dealer and a sexual deviant.
“We sent it out to actors, and no Black actors wanted to play in a movie where there are no good Black people,” Schrader said in an interview with The Playlist, going on to blatantly add, “And it sort of died. But then AI came along, and I didn’t need Black actors.” The film, which originally had Antoine Fuqua attached to produce it, will reportedly be completely AI-generated. Schrader sees this decision as the project’s main source of pushback, completely ignoring the fact that Black actors simply don’t want to put on a performance that further perpetuates false characteristics of our race.
The Taxi Driver director’s affinity for A.I. has been brewing for a hot minute, even defending the use of it back in 2025 when he wrote on Facebook, “I just asked chatgpt for ‘an idea for Paul Schrader film.’ Then Paul Thomas Anderson. Then Quentin Tarantino. Then Harmony Korine. Then Ingmar Bergman. Then Rossellini. Lang. Scorsese. Murnau. Capra. Ford. Speilberg [sic]. Lynch. Every idea chatgpt came up with (in a few seconds) was good. And original. And fleshed out. Why should writers sit around for months searching for a good idea when AI can provide one in seconds?”
A few days ago, he added to the theory after getting self-satisfying results from ChatGPT on a prompt for a screenplay adaption of the Russell Banks novel, Affliction. “To ignore AI is to ignore the future,” he wrote as a closing statement. Our only rebuttal is, what about ignoring human decency?
